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JVN Tells Katie Couric About Interpretive Dancing to Jewel in 6th Grade
"In my head I was really giving you so much more Kristi Yamaguchi realness."
Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness -- aka JVN -- was a guest on Katie Couric's podcast this week and talked about everything from his gay awakening to high school bullying to Ronald Regan. But the sweetest and funniest moment was when JVN shared a story from middle school about doing an interpretive dance to a Jewel song for his sixth grade talent show.
"I did this interpretive lyrical dance in my sixth grade talent show to this ghost track from Jewel's album," explained Van Ness. When Couric said she'd like to see the video, he replied, "I actually dread it. It's gonna come out someday. I know someone has a video of it. But I did this hand designed costume with this gigantic, it was actually very similar to this sweater dress, but it was a t-shirt and it had a glitter pin question mark on the front and then an upside down question mark on the back, because, you know, I had just started taking Spanish. It was sixth grade.
Then Couric's co-host Brian Goldsmith asked if Van Ness made the shirt himself. "Yes queen! I glitter decorated it myself. And my mom was like, I remember after I made the talent show, honey, because everyone tried out for the talent show. It was very major. So when I made it, my mom was like, 'if you do this, this will always be your, kind of, thing. And you'll never escape it really.' She was like 'I'm gonna be there. I want you to do whatever makes you happy. But I just want you to really be sure.' And I was like "fuck you, bitch, I'm doing it! It's gonna be fierce! You will love it! I hate you for even doubting me. My arabesque is gorgeous in the opening position.'
And now hid the performance go? "It was amazing, honey, it was amazing! Well actually, when I did see video for the first time, I was like 'oh, in my head I was really giving you so much more Kristi Yamaguchi realness.' Like, the jumps were higher, the twirls were tighter, the leaps were much less bent-legged. But in my head if felt great. It felt great!"
You can listen to the entire episode below.
